Gina Christian – OSV
Christianity’s decline in the US may have stalled, but signs of a long-term downward trend remain, according to a new Pew Research Centre survey.
On February 26, Pew released the results of its 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study, which polled nearly 37,000 US adults on a range of topics regarding religious belief and practice, as well as issues such as abortion, homosexuality, immigration and the role of government.
The report showed that 19% of the nation identifies as Catholic, although just 29% of that number attend religious services weekly or more often. It also showed that for every one person received into the Catholic Church, another 8.4 individuals have left the faith, either altogether or for another worship tradition. Catholics have also “experienced the greatest net losses” due to what Pew researchers called “religious switching,” with 43% of the people raised Catholic no longer identifying as such, “meaning that 12.8% of all US adults are former Catholics.”
It is important to note that 1.5% of US adults are converts to Catholicism. And though the number of those who say they’ve left the Catholic Church still outnumbers those the number of converts – that’s still millions of people who’ve joined the Church. “That there are more converts to Catholicism than there are members of congregational churches.” said Pew researchers.
In addition, support among US Catholics for legalised abortion, homosexuality, and other stances at odds with Church teaching has increased over the past decade and a half.
